Half Clans and Rejects
by Esellyn
Summary: Alongside the explosive team seven, a second team follows the rest of the rookie Konoha genin. Maybe not as powerful as Sasuke or Naruto, but sure as heck smarter, maybe they'll have fewer casualties. Among their friends and family, anyway. Enemies might end up with giant shuriken in them though.
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N) All right, so, first things first. This is from Akiko's point of view, and it's something I haven't really seen before. Akiko is the Jonin for the three genin. This is in the same universe as This Team will be the Death of their Sensei (and everyone else), or so fondly nicknamed, TTDS. I'll try and keep the two at least slightly aligned, but it may take a few chapters to sync up. **

"Okay, I'd like you three to introduce yourselves."

"You know who we are," Rumi said calmly. "Yet, we don't know who you are. Why don't you start?"

Akiko hummed. Genin would be the death of her. "Well, my name is Akiko, I specialize in lightning-based Jutsus and shurikenjutsu. I really like giant shuriken, and I don't really feel like telling you anything else." Oh dear, she was turning into Kakashi. That's not good.

"My name is Rumi Aburame and I want to specialize in tracking and reconnaissance." Typical Aburame, cool as a clam, and about as personable as one too, until you actually get to know them.

"You next," Akiko said, gesturing to the sleepy Nara.

"Ugh, what a drag," he mumbled.

"You sound like your cousin," Katana remarked.

"Half cousin," Shinta muttered. "My name is Shinta Yamanaka-Nara. I plan on specializing in interrogation."

"Are you proficient at your clan jutsus?" Akiko asked, glancing between the two.

Rumi simply nodded.

"Such a drag," Shinta noted.

"All right, you are?" Akiko asked, looking to her third Genin, a ROOT kid, she'd been told.

"My name is Katana, I specialize in poisons and genjutsu with a secondary specialization in medical ninjutsu." After she said her part, she fell silent, watching Akiko calmly.

Akiko suppressed a shiver. ROOT kids were weird, and no one was ever quite sure about them. But, it was better than getting all three of the explosive trio. She knew Kakashi Hatake had gotten all three of them.

"Right, did you have anything else, or can we go," Rumi drawled. And she was sarcastic too, just brilliant. Logic and sarcasm, Akiko was doomed.

"Meet me back here tomorrow morning. Be here before 8." Akiko said, before using the Shunshin to disappear.

She met up with Asuma and Kurenai, waving to them with a smile. Kakashi, as predicted, was late. On the plus side, it was only half an hour, so that was an improvement.

"So, Akiko, any trouble with yours?" Kurenai asked, looking curiously at her fellow kunoichi.

"Well, Rumi's calm and collected, but can be sarcastic, dunno where she got that, and Shinta is lazy. It seems Shinta took after one clan more than the other. Shinta wants to specialize in interrogation, so this'll be interesting."

"Just don't let Anko get her claws in him, she'd skin him alive," Kurenai said, laughing slightly.

"Or the two of them would go on to terrorize the world," Akiko agreed. "One of the two. While he's intelligent enough and seems quite lazy, I noticed he had almost perfect scores on every test in the academy. I don't think he inherited all of the laziness of a Nara, just some of it. Most likely he's going to be a ruthless killer. Too lazy to play with his prey."

"Sounds like he'll be best for assassination missions. Quick and able to interrogate people along the way." Asuma said, tilting his head. "And the third one?"

"She's a ROOT kid. Katana is her name, and I worry about what it could mean," Akiko said, shrugging.

"And, what's she planning to go into?" Kurenai asked.

"She didn't say, but did admit she's a specialist in poison and genjutsu with side specializations of medical ninjutsu and kenjutsu."

"Illusions, medic stuff, and swords, that's impressive, especially for someone as young as her," Kurenai mused. "The chakra control needed for genjutsu and medical ninjitsu, plus the power and precision needed for kenjutsu and poison, we're doomed."

"Yo," Kakashi said, causing Akiko to whirl around and send a punch at him, nicking his chin with her fist.

"You're late. We gave plenty of time to talk to your genin team, and you're late. If you give a stupid excuse I will stab you with a giant shuriken. I just so happen to have several sealed away…" she didn't finish the statement, one hand hovering threateningly over her belt.

"Maa, maa, no leniency for the jonin who got the explosive trio?"

"No," Akiko said flatly, knowing he'd probably been at the memorial stone for the last hour or so. "Next time, I'll start threatening your precious books." She smirked, turning back to the other Jonin, leaving a shocked Kakashi behind as she led the two other jonin into the restaurant.

"So, Asuma, you got this generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, right?" Kurenai asked.

"Same issues as the last iteration, but yeah."

"I'm sure that'll clear up after a while, I'm gonna have to work out some way for Shinta to actually work hard. He'll do what he has to, and complete things, but isn't very enthusiastic." Akiko sighed. "I've got my work cut out for me."

"We all do, Hinata barely spoke, and while Shino and Kiba aren't terrible, they definitely aren't the best of friends."

"You got all of that from one interaction?" Akiko wondered, tilting her head at the other Kunoichi.

"They were sending passive-aggressive glares at each other the entire time, and Hinata barely stuttered anything out. The only word I caught was something about Naruto. And something about a seal."

"What did you ask them?"

"Name, dreams, and likes, you?"

"I didn't actually give a form. At all. I said my name and what I specialized in, and they followed my example, giving names and what they wanted to go into for the clan kids, and what they specialized in for that ROOT kid." Akiko shuddered slightly. "There is something off about that girl."

"No emotions what so ever?" Asuma guessed sympathetically.

"Not that I saw. To be fair, no tests have happened, and I spent all of five minutes with them before dismissing them." Akiko shrugged. "So, Kakashi's probably doing the bell test in hope of dismissing them right off the bat, not gonna work, by the way, Kakashi, the explosive trio is known for their teamwork and loyalty to each other. What are you two doing?"

"With the Inuzuka and Aburame, plus a Hyuuga, my team is meant for tracking, so I'll have them track me down. I read up on scent tricking genjutsus awhile ago, glad I did," Kurenai said, giving her order to the waitress, followed by the others.

"Oh, they'll have fun with that," Akiko said, smirking. "Asuma?"

He waved his hand flippantly. "Not really planning anything, they are this generation of Ino-Shika-Cho, after all."

"Well, as Kakashi's favorite quote goes, only 9 of the 27 or so kids that graduated will pass. Or, 66% will fail." Akiko smirked at Kakashi when he turned his head to glare at her half-heartedly. "And I'm hoping my team will be part of that 34% that become full Genin."

"Well, we all know Kakashi's team is going to make it," Kurenai commented, smiling at the waitress as she delivered their food. "He got the three that work best together. Normally they'd be split up, but I think the Hokage wanted Konoha to be intact by the end of their training."

"Yeah, good idea. Keep the damage control with the two damage. I may come hide with you, Kurenai, I'll probably make mine find me, then capture me, or something like that. Not sure for Katana though."

"Maybe actually finding us in our genjutsu?" Kurenai suggested. "Or, recognizing it anyway."

"Right. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to help me with her, I'm bad at genjutsu, so I'd appreciate your help."

"I'm hurt," Asuma said. "I don't get to help?"

"You have a team. Maybe some time you can bring your team over, and they can spar. I got one kid with all the skills as two of your team."

"Plotting, are we?" Kakashi asked mildly.

"Yes," Akiko replied, smirking. "I'm not favoring one student over the others, and I want all my students to be well versed in recognizing and dispelling genjutsus. I would advise you do it as well, Kakashi."

Kakashi pretended to not have heard her. "Did you say something Akiko?"

"Yes," she replied sweetly. "I said you can't tell one end of a kunai from the other."

"No, you didn't," Kakashi protested, trying to salvage his dignity.

"And you have reinforced my knowledge that you actually listen to everything going on around you," Akiko smirked at him, reveling in the fact she'd finally caught him. She suspected for ages, and now she'd caught him!

"Why didn't we get you two in the same place at the same time before?" Asuma wondered, grinning.

"I don't know, it's proving to be very amusing now," Kurenai agreed.

"Well, we've known each other for a while," Akiko pointed out. "You're lucky he wasn't any later, he was lucky too, any later and I would've had to hunt him down. Speaking of which," she rounded on Kakashi. "If I haven't already made this threat before, I'm making it again. You arrive late to your genin's bell test, I'm taking them and testing them myself. Then you have no say in the matter whatsoever. In addition, I will arrange a very… unfortunate accident, and destroy your books." She then smiled sweetly, releasing a very slight amount of killer intent. "You're lucky I didn't burn your books just for almost being late to pick up your own genin. This is your only warning."

"I bet that had the boys wetting their pants when you were younger," Kurenai said, grinning.

"I wouldn't know, I usually scared, then left," Akiko said innocently. "Although, I suppose a larger number of males got sent to the nurse's office after incidents like that."

"The women of Konoha are terrifying," Asuma muttered.

"You got that right," Akiko said, grinning.

"I hope you aren't this immature with your team," Kurenai said, shaking her head.

Akiko shrugged. "Have you seen Gai? That guy is the definition of crazy. At least I'm mildly sane."

"No jonin is sane," Kakashi muttered.

Akiko grinned menacingly. "Nope; comes with the job!"

"I should get going, after all, I have a genin test to administer tomorrow." Kurenai excused herself, placing down some money to cover her part of the meal. "See you tomorrow."

"I should get going too. See you tomorrow," Asuma said, placing down money as well, and leaving after the pretty kunoichi.

"You leaving first dog-boy?" Akiko asked, smirking at him.

"Sure," Kakashi said mildly, placing money down and standing up slowly.

Akiko shook her head, placing down money to cover her meal, plus a tip, and stood up. "Go on mutt, you have a genin team to test tomorrow. Don't let me hear of you being late, or your books go in the fireplace."

Akiko showed up five minutes early and led her team to where she knew Kakashi was administering the test to check in on the other team. Luckily for him and his books, Kakashi had arrived on time, and even a little bit early. He caught Akiko's self-satisfied smirk and glared at her. His students didn't seem to notice, as Naruto was busy drawing with Sasuke hovering over his shoulder and looking at the paper, and Sakura checking the scroll every few minutes.

"Why are we spying on team 7?" Katana asked.

"I'm just making sure Kakashi wasn't late. If he was, we would've had a mission to do," Akiko replied, turning to her students and smiling. "Let's go back to our training ground. I have a test for you."

"Of what purpose is this test?" Rumi asked, tilting her head slightly.

"To see if you can become genin!" Akiko replied, cheerily.

Rumi thought about it for a moment, then shrugged, a slight buzzing coming from her. Akiko looked at her suspiciously. Was Rumi laughing at her? She never could tell with the Aburame.

"What kind of test is it, Akiko-sensei?" Katana asked, looking at Akiko.

"Hide and seek!" Akiko said cheerfully.

"We're playing hide and seek with you? Annoying," Shinta said, yawning.

"Shinta, Rumi, you're seeking! I'm hiding from you, and Katana, you're hiding from me. Genjutsu specialist, are you not?"

Rumi frowned. "Are there rules in place?"

"Well, a few. No going outside of Konoha, and no killing anyone, but you can work with each other, and with other teams if you are so inclined. Oh, and if you don't find me by noon, you don't pass. Katana, I find you before noon, you don't pass."

"Other teams?" Shinta asked, looking at her strangely.

"If the mood suits you. Admittedly, Team 7 is probably busy with their own test, so don't bother them, but the other two teams whose Jonin I know from your year should be open. I dunno what they're doing. Have some fun with it!"

"Are you going to hide?" Rumi asked skeptically.

"Already did." Akiko's shadow clone said, grinning widely. "One of you do me a favor and hit me, would you? I can't really dispel myself."

Katana pulled out the weapon she was named after, slicing the shadow clone neatly in half.

**(A/N) Akiko has one heck of a sense of humor. It may take a while before they figure out what she meant. Maybe. We'll see. Stars, I hope I didn't traumatize Shinta and Rumi...**


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N) Yeah, Akiko did mean for the three to work together, and maybe even work together with Kurenai's team. The two teams will probably work closer together than with Team 7, as they're a little bit closer in terms of skills. **

Akiko got the memories of her shadow clone and grinned. "My game has begun," she informed Kurenai. "I might have traumatized Rumi and Shinta though. I got Katana to dispel my shadow clone."

"What did she do?" Kurenai asked, shifting slightly. The two women were perched on the edge of Hokage tower, looking out over the town.

"Cut me in half with her katana. Since it was a shadow clone, I exploded into smoke, but it was still amusing. From what my clone saw, Shinta looked rather shocked. Rumi, I can't read her, unfortunately."

"Aburames don't really show emotion," Kurenai agreed. "Oh look, they met my team."

Akiko looked where her friend was pointing, giggling slightly as the two teams paired off, and started looking around. "Huh, Katana is with them."

"She is?"

"Yeah, she's cloaked in a weird genjutsu, but yeah, she's that third girl."

"I don't remember her looking like that," Kurenai said doubtfully. "And wouldn't looking different just be a henge?"

"I don't know, but it's a genjutsu alright. The chakra output is too high to be a henge. It must be some sort of person fooling genjutsu, or she wouldn't be using it. Watch the civilians, they're interacting with her like she's a civilian, then when she stops talking to them, it's like she doesn't exist. They seem to completely forget about her, so if she addresses them again, they have no look of recognition."

"She should work on it being more widespread, it isn't affecting us."

"But we can still see the physical differences," Akiko argued. "Maybe it's a henge on top of a genjutsu? That would fool more of the long-range viewers."

"But they'd still see her and recognize her. Unless her friends were doing it too, they'd be recognized as a genin team," Kurenai said, shifting again.

"But there isn't an adult around. And there are two teams of shinobi. Maybe the hypothetical long-range shinobi viewers think it's a pair of chunin teams. That could lead to dangerous over preparation, with the enemy preparing for two teams of chunin, instead of the two teams of genin that will be attacking them."

"They're too young to be chunin, right?"

"Kakashi was a chunin at age 6. They're double that. So, I wouldn't say they're too young to be chunin."

"I guess you're right. And anyone good enough to construct a genjutsu of that caliber could easily be mistaken for a chunin."

"I'm sure Katana is already chunin level at least," Akiko agreed. A door opened behind them, and the two women turned around. "Oh, hello Lord Third. We're just gonna hang out up here for a while."

Lord Third nodded sagely. "Well, don't let me keep you. Tell the genin I said hello."

"When they find us, we will," Kurenai said, smiling at the old man. He smiled at the two jonin, then turned around and went back inside. "So, Akiko, you never said why you are mildly surprised that Katana is with them."

"Oh, I told Katana that I would be looking for her, and if I found her by noon, she wouldn't pass."

"Who are you, Kakashi?" Kurenai asked, amused.

Akiko smirked. "Maybe I caught the mysterious Kakashi disease during the time we dated."

"You two dated?" Kurenai asked incredulously.

Akiko's smirk only widened. "Yep! He's a good kisser."

"So," Kurenai said conversationally, "you've seen under the mask?"

Akiko's smirk continued to widen. "Yep! No, I'm not telling you a thing."

Kurenai gave her a flat look. "You, lady, are a cruel human being."

Akiko's smirk turned to a grin showing an awful lot of teeth. "Yep!"

"Kai!" Both women turned around as the genjutsu Kurenai had put up was dispelled.

"Found you!" Kiba shouted triumphantly. Rumi and Shino adjusted their glasses at almost the same time, and Shinta just yawned while Hinata poked her index fingers together. Katana, or who they assumed was Katana merely stared at them calmly.

"So you did," Akiko agreed. "Now, everyone, I want to hear how each of you helped. You to Katana. I can tell it's you underneath the henge and the genjutsu. I'll get you to chat with Kurenai about improving that later."

Katana didn't even blink as her genjutsu and henge fell away. "So you found me."

"My previous request stands," Akiko reminded them.

Katana nodded. "Rumi and Shino spread their kikichu around the village searching for you. Kiba and Akamaru found your scents and helped us follow them. Hinata helped with her byakugan, and I helped talk to the villagers and request information from them. Shinta took all the information and put it together to map out the village and cross off spots you could be. We worked quite well together, and I would suggest further training together."

"Well, we know who's doing the reports from here out," Akiko muttered to Kurenai. Kurenai stifled a giggle, turning to her team. "Who found us first? I designed this genjutsu to avoid all of your specialties. It was supposed to spread out our chakra signatures, and disguise our scent and chakra coils."

"We kinda all figured out where you were around the same time," Shinta admitted. "Or, I figured it out and spread it around."

Akiko nodded. "Congratulations, you all pass. You too Katana, after all, you helped find me before noon."

"But you appear to have found me beforehand," Katana said, tilting her head slightly.

"Eh, we have to pretend to be less than our actual ranks. To anyone below jonin level, that genjutsu and henge would have fooled them. If you didn't keep reporting back to Shinta so obviously. Stopping to talk with the other genin would've been less suspicious because they were not the central hub as it were. You could have also used the storekeepers to pass on messages more subtly," Akiko informed her. "But we can work on this kind of thing later. For now, I believe lunch is in order."

"You think Kakashi's been blown up yet?" Kurenai asked. The sound of an explosion rippled out across Konoha.

"If he hadn't before, he has now. Alright, who wants to go see what Team 7 is doing before we get lunch?"

**(A/N) Stars, I hope Kakashi is at least a little bit okay…**


	3. Chapter 3

Akiko led her team toward training ground 7. Kurenai's team was following a few steps behind.

She walked into the clearing, snickering as she spotted a rather charred Kakashi passed out on the ground, with Sakura and Sasuke hovering over him with glowing hands. "You blew up Kakashi?" She asked, continuing to snicker.

Naruto turned to her, while Sakura and Sasuke made like good medic nin, and ignored her. "Yes, we blew him up," Naruto confirmed.

Akiko began laughing, going over to kneel by Kakashi. Her hands lit up green, and she began helping Sakura and Sasuke heal the damage. Maybe it was good Kakashi had two medics on his team. He might remain alive longer. And he probably wouldn't lose any of his team. Akiko knew basic medical ninjutsu, mostly because her parents hadn't let her graduate unless she knew at least how to heal scratches and stuff. She didn't know how much Katana knew, but she hoped she could help. It would get done faster, and they could go get lunch. "Thought this might happen. Katana, get over here and help heal my poor ex-boyfriend."

Katana nodded, moving over.

Only took a minute or so, then Kakashi started stirring.

"Alright, he's fine," Akiko decided, the glow of her chakra disappearing. "We've healed him enough." Sakura ignored her, apparently in her own world. Akiko grabbed Sakura's wrist, startling her. "That's enough. He's waking up."

Sakura blinked at her. "Oh, right. Okay." The glow faded from her hands, and she stood up, stretching. "Hey Naruto, grab the bells from him real quick, would you?"

Akiko held up a finger, then quickly pulled out a kunai, slicing through the ropes holding the bells in place. She handed one to Sakura, and the other to Sasuke. "You guys do with those as you will."

Sasuke's hand lit up with chakra, and he neatly sliced the bell in half. He tossed one half of the bell to Naruto. "Hn."

Kakashi grunted, opening his visible eye.

"Oh, good morning Kakabaka! Got a little burnt, did you?" Akiko said cheerfully, smirking at Kakashi.

Kakashi merely groaned, sitting up.

"We did our best to heal the majority of the damage," Katana said, her voice flat and unemotional. "Akiko stopped us from healing you completely."

Kakashi turned a baleful glare on Akiko, and she shrugged. "Their chakra levels were bound to be getting low. Couldn't have them exhausting themselves too badly. Besides, you're fine."

"I have much larger reserves than you think," Sakura argued. "I have to, with those two around."

"Lunch?" Sasuke requested. "I'm hungry."

"Alright," Akiko allowed. "We can go find some lunch."

Naruto grinned widely at her. "Where we going?"

"I heard you like ramen," Akiko said, grinning mischievously.

"Of course I do!" Naruto shouted.

Sakura sighed. "Naruto, if you start a monologue on how much you like ramen again, I will punch you into next week. Kakashi can recover while you're out."

Akiko rubbed Naruto's head, ruffling his hair. "Alright, you'd better avoid the monologuing, your teammate looks serious."

With that, Akiko led all three teams, plus the other two Jounin, to the ramen stand Naruto liked so much. No, she was not a stalker, she'd just read up on her genin, then read up on Kakashi's for him. Also, Kakashi would probably find some way to pawn them off on her at some point. Not that she minded, they were nice kids. When they weren't blowing stuff up. With their teamwork, she was sure they'd be called the next Sannin if they remained together. Although, no one in their right mind was going to separate the three. Unless they wanted Konoha leveled. Amount of damage wrecked depended on how voluntary the separation was.

Later, she settled down at a table with the other Jounin of the rookies. "So, everyone's kids pass?"

"Mine did, of course," Asuma said, puffing out a bit of smoke.

"Akiko's and mine worked together to find us," Kurenai offered. "So, they did wonderfully."

"Mine blew me up. Then while I was unconscious, took my bells," Kakashi complained. "And Akiko stood by and let them!"

"You say that like I knew they were going to blow you up," Akiko said, amused. "We were all the way across town when you went and stepped on an explosive tag, not remembering that your three students are called 'The Explosive Trio' for a reason."

Kakashi narrowed his visible eye and looked away. Asuma was laughing. "You stepped on an explosive tag and blew yourself up?"

Kurenai giggled. "According to his students, yes. He blew himself up. By being distracted."

"Apparently," Akiko continued. "He was so distracted that Naruto managed to sneak out and place a tag right next to him. And clearly, Kakashi didn't notice." She smirked at him as he attempted to bury his face in his book.

"Getting sloppy in your old age, Hatake?" Asuma teased.

"Maa, maa, I let them place that tag," Kakashi tried.

"You _let_ the Explosive trio, one of which is known for his expertise with seals, explosive tags especially, just place a tag next to you?" Kurenai asked incredulously. "Have you gotten dumber in your old age?"

"Oh Kakabaka," Akiko said fondly. "You need to learn. We don't let things go. This will haunt you for the rest of your days with us!"

Kakashi sighed, slumping imperceptibly. "You never let anything go," he practically whined.

"When it's the fact that you 'let'" she placed quotations around the word "the explosive trio place a tag, then set it off, no. There is little to no chance you are ever going to live this down."

"You're so mean," Kakashi muttered, slumping further. A few seconds later, food arrived, and he straightened up. Akiko focused on her own plate, knowing Kakashi would have his done in .01 seconds as soon as they looked away. It was a Kakashi thing.

**(A/N) Sorry Kakashi, they're never letting you live that down. You have forever implanted it in their minds. **


	4. Chapter 4

**(A/N) D-rank time! There'll be a chapter or two of it, then we'll head off to Wave. Or, Team 7 will be. Akiko's team's doing a completely different thing. Not anywhere near Wave, actually. **

"Alright, who wants to do a D-ranked mission?" Akiko asked cheerfully.

"Sure," Katana replied.

Rumi shrugged, and Shinta yawned.

"I'm going to take that as a yes, so come on! We have a Hokage tower to get to!" Akiko said, leading her genin team off.

She'd forgotten something, but she couldn't remember for the life of her what it was. She had her giant shuriken, plus her normal-sized shuriken and kunai, she had her standard vest with all the accompanying equipment, she had her lunch safely sealed away in the seal on her stomach, that meant she had everything, right? Hm, she'd figure it out later, and it wasn't like they'd get ambushed while babysitting or something. And besides, she could always shunshin back to her apartment to grab anything she needed. Her genin wouldn't miss her if she only left for a minute or two. Eh, she'd remember later.

At the mission office, Akiko grinned in that sadistic way of hers. "Is it possible to have a babysitting mission?"

The Hokage nodded, pulling a scroll from a stack marked D-rank. "My Grandson, Konohamaru and his two friends are in need of babysitting, Ebisu is busy today, and Udon and Moegi require someone to watch them after the academy."

Akiko smirked, taking the scroll. "We'll see to it. Hm, the academy doesn't let out for another four hours, do you have another mission we could take in the meantime?"

"Well, I suppose helping Iruka Umino with his ninjutsu and taijutsu classes this afternoon will make it easier for you to collect Konohamaru afterward."

Akiko grin only widened as she took the scroll. "Alright, we'll get right on it. Will you be collecting Konohamaru from the park?"

The Hokage nodded. "Of course."

Akiko nodded to him and herded her team out.

Once outside, she turned to them. "Alright, we'll be heading off to the academy. You guys will probably be helping mostly by sparring with the students. I'll probably do the ninjutsu section, as you guys don't really know much ninjutsu. I promise to teach you some later, but we have to do some missions first."

The three nodded, and she led them off, right to the academy.

Akiko guessed her genin were probably wishing they didn't have to come back here, they'd graduated darn it, couldn't they just leave school behind? Well, Akiko had learned that no. You never escaped the academy. You would always be forced to come back for some reason or another. Best to get this particular D-rank out of the way.

They reached the academy, and Akiko showed the front desk person the mission scroll, then was pointed out to where the class was in the field near the academy.

"Ah, are you guys the genin team here to help with ninjutsu and taijutsu day?" Iruka asked, smiling kindly.

Akiko nodded. "Yep! And we'll be picking up the Konohamaru trio after class."

"Apologies for being forced to deal with him all day," he told her.

Akiko smirked. "It'll be good practice for my genin. Not all clients are nice."

"Most of them aren't," Iruka agreed. "Alright, class, this is Team 13. Akiko-sensei will be demonstrating a few jutsu for you, then her genin will spar with some of you. They graduated just a few days ago, so they can be a good goal to reach. If you can manage to beat them in taijutsu, you should be able to pass the Taijutsu segment on the graduation test. Why don't you guys introduce yourselves real quick?"

Rumi nodded, stepping forward slightly. "I am Rumi Aburame. I would like to specialize in tracking and reconnaissance."

"I'm Shinta Yamanaka-Nara."

"I am Katana. I specialize in poisons and genjutsu with a secondary specialization in medical ninjutsu and kenjutsu."

Akiko smiled at them. "I'm Akiko. I like lightning and giant shuriken!"

Iruka sighed. "Just don't try and get the kids to play with them like Mizuki did. They're dangerous."

Akiko grinned. "Of course not!"

It went smoothly, Akiko demonstrating a few lightning jutsu, and a couple of earth ones as well. The genin beat the academy kids, of course, but they were only like, 7. Iruka thanked them for their help as he dismissed the kids at the end of the day.

"Thank you for all of your help. And I appreciate the lack of giant shuriken threats, Akiko. I am well aware of your preference for that sort of threat."

Akiko grinned. It was true, she did like threatening people with giant shuriken, it was quite fun. "No problem. Konohamaru! Moegi! Udon! Get over here!"

The three kids hurried over rather quickly. Akiko's demonstration of a jutsu she didn't need any hand signs for had scared them. It wasn't a lethal jutsu, nor would it require a hospital. But it hurt. A lot. Well, Iruka said it did. He had graciously allowed her to demonstrate what it did on him.

Her genin trailed after the kids, mildly bored looks on their faces.

"Alright, let's go to the park! I have a great idea!"

The three genin and the three academy students looked at her warily, probably mildly worried it would involve lightning or giant shuriken.

"Aw come on, don't look at me like that, it'll be fun!" Akiko protested, beginning to herd the six kids off towards the park.

They reached the park, and Akiko immediately marched them over to some trees. "Alright, do any of you know how to climb trees? Show of hands. Alright, who knows how to do it without hands?"

It went over pretty well, for which she was grateful. She really didn't remember much of what she did as a child, besides play with lightning after she discovered her elemental affinity. As it had been wartime, kids were taught more stuff in the academy, including their affinities. She had a major affinity for lightning and had developed a minor earth affinity over the years. She could do jutsu from all five elements, but it was annoying and difficult for the ones she didn't have an affinity for. She decided to bring elemental affinity papers the next day, to give to her genin.

**(A/N) Yeah, Akiko taught them tree walking. As a babysitting game. Hiruzen wasn't sure to be mad or impressed when he came to pick Konohamaru up, only to find the kid was standing upside down on one of the monkey bars, his scarf brushing the ground. **


	5. Chapter 5

Akiko settled down, perched on a branch. Her genin would be here soon, and she figured it would be amusing to scare them a bit.

Katana arrived first, looking around, then shrugging and pulling out a katana to run through kata.

Rumi arrived and began fidgeting with her bugs, by which Akiko meant she sat down and didn't move.

Shinta arrived last, and a good five minutes late. "Where's Akiko-sensei?" He asked, yawning.

Akiko cursed the infectious nature of yawns, suppressing one herself. She pulled out the four sheets of chakra paper she'd brought, and jumped out of the tree, the papers extended. "Good morning my cute little genin!" She shouted, grinning widely as Shinta jerked up, Rumi startled, and Katana nearly stabbed herself. "Look what I have!"

The three stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

Akiko drooped. "And no one takes it. Alright, these are chakra papers!"

"And?" Katana asked after a long pause.

Akiko sweatdropped. "They tell your chakra affinity. See?" Akiko held up one of the papers, channeling chakra into it. It crinkled, and one of the corners burned slightly while another crumbled to dust. "It means I have a strong Raiton affinity and minor Doton and Katon affinities. Katon is the most common affinity in Konoha."

She handed one to each of her genin. "Just channel a little bit of chakra into the paper, and we'll find out your affinities. Katana, you first!"

Katana channeled chakra into the paper, and one half of the paper burned, the other half crumbled to dust.

"Alright, Doton and Katon! Shinta, you go next, ya lazy slacker."

He sighed, but channeled chakra to the paper. It crinkled, and Akiko took the opportunity to rub her hands together gleefully. "You know what this means?" She asked, grinning maniacally.

"This is going to be so troublesome," Shinta replied.

"Oi! This is lightning we're talking about! Lightning is amazing! Alright, talk about that later, Rumi, you next!"

Rumi sighed. "On a sugar high today, are we sensei?"

Akiko squawked, acting offended. "I'll have you know the last time I had sugar was last night!"

Rumi snorted softly, eliciting another offended squawk from their sensei, and channeled chakra into the paper. It crumbled away into nothing.

"Alrighty, I am so freaking lucky that I have affinities for all of your affinities! Which means I now have an excuse to pester Kakashi for more Doton and Katon jutsu. He knows all the fun ones," Akiko had another maniacal grin on her face, and as one, her genin began backing up slowly. "Aww, c'mon, don't be like that, I'm not Ibiki or Anko."

"And who are they?" Katana asked tentatively.

Akiko's grin turned absolutely gleeful. "I'll take you to meet them!" Happily, she led them off to the T&I department to meet Anko and Ibiki.

"Hello Ibiki!" Akiko shouted as she opened the door. "My genin would like to meet you!"

The interrogation head looked up from his paperwork. "Ah Akiko-chan, you haven't been around in ages."

Akiko grinned. "Well, I got a squad of kiddies! And one has a Raiton affinity!"

"Excitable today, aren't we, Akiko-chan?" He asked, setting aside his pen.

She shrugged. "I suppose, but I just found out that one of my cute little genin has a Raiton affinity!"

Ibiki nodded. "If you're looking for Anko, she's out in the forest of death getting some venom for a poison she's making. Are you going to do a D-rank today?"

Akiko blinked, then nodded. "Oh yeah, should probably do one. See you around, Ibiki! By the way, he's the head of the Torture and Interrogation department. You ever desert the village, and you get to see what he can do."

Rumi and Shinta paled slightly, while Katana merely cocked her head.

"Oh, and Shinta, you'll be working for him, should you choose to actually go into interrogation." She grinned at them, then spotted Kakashi and his team. "Oh, hey Team 7!"

The three genin glanced at each other, but fell in behind her as she veered off towards the other team.

"Ah, Tora mission?" Akiko asked sympathetically. "How'd you get the cat unconscious?"

"We sapped it's chakra. It now has a permanent chakra sapping seal on it, so we can activate it whenever we need to catch it." Sakura smiled at the older female. "Going into the mission office?"

Akiko nodded, wondering if her team would ever get the Tora mission. Didn't seem like it at this rate. "Yeah, turning in your first D-rank of the day?" Akiko glanced at Kakashi, who seemed to be attempting to subtly move away from her. She started snickering, noticing the orange glitter that covered the other Jounin. "Oooh, Kakashi, orange glitter, huh? Have a run in with tiny terror here?" She ruffled Naruto's hair, grinning crookedly at him.

She noticed Sakura snickering, and decided that yes, it was their fault.

"See you later Akiko," Sakura said, a scroll already in her hand.

Akiko nodded absently, looking over the missions. She faced her genin, holding up two of them. "Painting fences, or weeding this lady's garden?"

"Fences," Rumi decided. The other two nodded.

"Oh, Akiko, I know what you forgot yesterday," Iruka mentioned casually.

She turned around. "Really?"

"Yeah, you forgot to threaten Kakashi to be on time. I assure you though, the genin took care of it."

Akiko grinned. "Right, can't believe I forgot that. Well, I suppose it was for the better. How badly did they get him?"

"Apparently, they trapped the entire field before they ran out of supplies," Iruka said, smiling slightly. "Kakashi had to disable all of them."

Akiko grinned. "Well, that's taken care of, good on them!"

"See you later," Iruka said, waving them off.

Akiko set the weeding mission down, taking the painting fences scroll with her. "Yep!"

"What, you date him too?" Rumi asked quietly.

Akiko smirked. "Maybe I have, what's it to you? Well, actually, I watched your class for the last like, month before the graduation exam. He knew I was there, of course. It was fun seeing how long he'd take to spot me."

**(A/N) Like you wouldn't watch the class that's graduating to see if there was a team you wanted. Unless you were Kakashi. In which case, you wouldn't give a kunai. **


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N) C-rank!**

Akiko grinned at her genin, decided it was time to do a C-rank. Sure it'd only been four months, but she was sure they were ready. Also, she knew Team 7 was getting antsy and didn't really want to be around when they finally snapped. She knew enough horror stories from Kakashi. They were cute, but easier dealt with when kept calm and away from explosives.

"You're grinning at us," Katana noted. "That makes me worry."

Akiko's grin only widened. "Who wants to do a C-rank?"

Shinta yawned. "Troublesome. I guess it'll be interesting. Better then Tora."

Rumi nodded. "Most things are better then Tora."

"Why not," Katana agreed.

Akiko nodded happily. "Alright, let's go nab one before everyone else leaves the bad ones behind."

And, like always, her genin fell in behind her like a row of little genin ducklings. Akiko wasn't entirely sure why they did that, but they kept doing it. Even when she'd pointed it out two days after they actually became a team.

"_You realize you're following me like a line of little baby ducklings, right?" Akiko asked, tilting her head at the genin in front of her. _

_They all nodded affirmatively. _

"_There's less thinking involved," Shinta offered. _

"_I have thinking to do, less concentrating on where I'm going," Rumi agreed. "Besides, you tend to clear crowds fairly quickly. Less pushing people out of the way when you leave a wake a mile long." _

_Katana didn't say anything, just stared at her. _

Akiko snapped out of it just in time to wave cheerily to the Hokage and Iruka. "Hello!" She trilled. "We're here for a C-rank!"

The Hokage smiled fondly. "Hello Akiko, we have two minor C-ranks available. An escort mission to Wave, and a delivery mission to Rice."

Akiko glanced at her team.

"Delivery," Katana said, after having a mini slient discussion with her teammates.

Akiko smiled at the Hokage, and he handed a scroll over. Akiko took it, noting the classification on the top of the scroll. It said C/A-rank. Akiko raised an eyebrow at the Hokage and he nodded, a couple of hand movements informing her she had a separate mission.

Akiko grinned and turned to her team. "Come on, we leave tomorrow. Take the rest of the day off to pack."

Her team nodded, leaving in a little line.

"Have a good day Akiko," Iruka said, smiling at her.

Akiko smiled. "See you around, Iruka." She left, the scroll hidden in one of her vest pockets.

Once outside, she sat down on a nearby tree branch, hidden well enough to not be seen by civilians. She wasn't too worried about the ninja, she was known for sitting in trees if she was thinking. Or napping.

She opened the scroll, finding a standard delivery mission. Some documents (sealed in the mission scroll) had to be delivered to a civilian who produced some of the weapons Konoha used. Her mission was to scout out the surrounding area, a feat which would've been so dangerous if it hadn't been for the fact that Jiraya had found rumors of Orochimaru setting up a base here. Her genin would be safe at the factory, provided they didn't wander too much. She could always set them to seeing how the factory worked, after all, infiltration missions required you to go undercover as a variety of things. That knowledge of something they weren't familiar with would help.

She had a short run-in with Kakashi, then it was off to the Jounin night, which had become rather regular when the four of them got Genin teams, and hence, something to A, keep them in the village, and B, give them something to complain about. Well, for some of them. Akiko had problems finding complaints with her genin.

"I'm telling you, that Nara is too smart for his own good!" Asuma complained, slurring his words slightly.

Akiko grinned at him and shook her head. "That's what you get for trying to play shogi with him Asuma. Haven't you tried playing his dad too?"

"Yeah," he replied forlornly. "That didn't work either."

"Then why did you expect it to work with his son?" Akiko asked, slightly exasperated. "You know how Nara are. Heck, you worked with one for a while there."

"And he beat me at shogi too!" Asuma complained, pouting.

Kurenai stifled a giggle. "Asuma-kun, have you tried playing someone who doesn't have you absolutely beat in strategy?"

"But," Asuma continued, "no one else will play with me! Everyone but the Nara and good ol dad think it's a waste of time! And Dad keeps beating me too!"

Akiko giggled. Asuma had apparently had a particularly bad day, as he was already a bit drunk. Akiko was nursing a glass of apple juice. She'd never had a taste for alcohol. The one time she'd actually had it, was her first kill as a genin. She'd woken up with a hangover and decided that it wasn't worth it. She stuck to apple juice, or sometimes orange juice if it was bad. Occasionally milk, but it tended to warm up quickly. "Have you tried asking the Aburame? They're fairly patient. Rumi has discovered a thing to do when it gets too boring, she's got a mental game of shogi running with Shinta. Although, they are tied right now, so maybe the Aburame aren't your best bet. I'm sure they'd love to play with you though!"

Kurenai shook her head at Asuma. "Really, you should spend a bit more time with Ino and Choji."

"Oh, are Kiba and Shino getting along any better?" Akiko asked.

Kurenai shook her head with a wry smile. "You ask that every week. Still the same answer. Nope."

Akiko frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe take a C-rank, maybe that'll drive them to get along a little better. I know it's a bit early, but maybe let them get some blood on their hands."

Kurenai shook her head vehemently. "No, not for another few months at least."

Akiko shrugged. "Well, aren't the Chuunin exams coming up? Honestly, I already discussed it with my genin, and they agreed they didn't want to participate this year. I wasn't going to enter them anyway. Six months is not enough time. Besides, I want to be there to talk them through their first kills. The exams have a nasty habit of forcing you to kill people."

"Didn't your sensei get you and your team drunk after your first kill?" Asuma asked, downing another shot.

Akiko shuddered, remembering the headache she'd had the next morning. Hadn't helped that she'd gotten cramps later that day. "Yeah, why do you think I drink apple juice instead? I've told you a million times." She knew Asuma was a forgetful drunk though, so she put up with it. Every time he got drunk.

**(A/N) Aww, Jounin bonding time, isn't that cute? Kakashi doesn't usually come, but sometimes he does. **


	7. Chapter 7

"Alright guys, Team 7 is traveling with a civilian, so they'll be taking the road. Anyone want to know how we're traveling?" Akiko said, looking expectantly at her genin.

"The treetops?" Katana offered.

Akiko beamed. "Yep! The treetops! It's a lot faster than civilian travel when done right. Unless you're falling off branches every few seconds, then it's not very fast at all."

"That would be assumed," Rumi agreed.

"We've traveled by rooftop before, and this is the same principle, but less running between jumps. You have to make sure where you land next can both support your weight, and won't break under you when you jump off, nullifying your momentum," Akiko continued.

Her genin nodded, and Akiko lept up onto a nearby branch. "Come on, you guys will be in front until I'm sure you've got it, then I'll take point."

Katana jumped up first, leaping a couple of branches away before being followed by Rumi, and finally Shinta. Akiko followed after them, ready to make sure none of them got too hurt.

A few minutes into their travel, Akiko stopped them, grinning. "Hey guys, I sense lightning that way, who wants to bet Team 7 ran into some bandits and Sakura pulled out a lightning seal?"

Katana nodded amicably. "I'm sure that's what happened Akiko-sensei."

Akiko huffed. "Alright, back to traveling. We have to turn a bit to the north in a while though."

Akiko stopped a second time almost an hour into their travel. "Bandits. And they have shinobi with them. Rumi, see if you can find the shinobi, and suck their chakra. Shinta, it's a camp, and they're right in our path. We can't go around, or they'll sense us. Plan. Katana, get your sword ready."

"How many?" Shinta asked, keeping his voice low.

"Twenty normal bandits, civilian level chakra, four genin level chakra signatures, and one jounin level signature. You're leaving that one to me, alright? Katana, do you have a poison I can put on my shuriken? I have used them with poison lining the edges before, but I don't carry poisons with me."

Katana nodded, reaching into a pocket on her backpack and handing a vial to Akiko. "It's Fer-de-Lance venom. It slowly melts their insides. Isn't actually lethal for at least 20 minutes. Reversible up until that point."

Akiko thought about it for a moment, then accepted the vial. "Thanks. You have an antidote?"

Katana handed her a second vial.

Rumi was distracted and didn't hear the exchange, but Shinta did and stared at them in mild horror.

Akiko smiled at him and started smearing the venom along one of her shuriken with an ink brush.

Shinta shuddered and turned away.

Akiko finished, and Rumi nodded to her, signaling she'd finished getting her Kikachu on all of the shinobi in the camp.

Akiko cleared her throat, drawing the attention of her genin. "This is a bandit camp. Rumi, Katana, Shinta, this will require killing, and I really wish your first kills were not during a mission, but we can't help it sometimes. I am not continuing what my sensei did and get you drunk afterward, as that was clearly a terrible idea. You're going to have to kill or be killed. Shinta, plan?"

Shinta nodded, looking slightly green at the idea of killing. "Rumi continues to sap the chakra of the shinobi, draining the ones with genin level chakra levels. They collapse, and Katana and Rumi can go in to take care of the bandits. I will function as backup, using shadow possession all that I can to leave them unharmed. Akiko, you tackle the one with jounin levels of chakra, and when you're done, tie up the genin and take them off somewhere so we can interrogate them."

Akiko nodded, proud of her genin. "It's a good plan. We'll use it." Akiko stared into the forest, then nodded. "The genin level ones are down. Execute."

Her genin nodded, and lept away, each going to their task. Akiko shunshined out into the clearing, right in front of the jounin level one.

"Akiko Hyousuke," The nin drawled. "Fancy seeing you out here. And with three little brats following you too, how cute."

"Tadaaki Eiichi, A-ranked missing-nin from Iwa," Akiko replied easily.

"You have a high bounty," he said.

"So do you," Akiko countered.

As one, their hands flew into hand signs.

"Doton: Earth flow wave!" Tadaaki shouted, as he finished his hand signs and rose up on a wave of dirt.

"Raiton: Elephant's charge!" Akiko replied, finishing with the snake sign, then thrusting her hands out, an elephant formed of lightning chakra charging forward and destroying the pillar Tadaaki was standing on. "Tadaaki, you know I'm lightning natured. You aren't going to stop me with earth jutsu."

"I'm an idiot," he agreed, lunging at her with a kunai.

Akiko pulled out the giant shuriken with the venom on it, and met him head-on, then throwing him back. She threw the giant shuriken, nicking him with it. It wasn't much, but it was enough to get the venom in his system. He rushed at her again, and she pulled out a kunai, exchanging a series of blows with him, ending with both of their kunai sent spiraling out of their owner's hands. Akiko darted forward this time, landing a neat hit to his stomach, winding him for a moment. He recovered quickly, sending a leg at her side. She blocked it and threw him backward again, hands poised for handsigns. "Raiton: Lightning Shock!" She charged at Tadaaki again, him now entirely on the defensive, trying to stay away from the lightning chakra now covering her hands.

"I hate this jutsu," he muttered as she finally tapped him on the shoulder, shocking, and then downing him.

"I'm sure you hate what I laced my shuriken with too," Akiko told him cheerfully. "Bye-bye!" She pulled out a giant shuriken, and with one blow, removed his head. She sealed his head into a scroll, intending on turning it in for the bounty. His bounty was for him dead, after all. He didn't need to be alive.

**(A/N) So, the Fer-de-lance is an actual snake, and yes, I am fully aware it is only found in Mexico and South America. Roll with it, okay? I created the two Raiton jutsu Akiko used, cause I couldn't find any good ones to use. Akiko was aware this may end up as a higher rank and was prepared for that to occur. Do you want an actual chapter of the genin doing their thing? Or just have them tell Akiko about it. **


	8. Chapter 8

**(A/N) Alright, this goes for all of my stories. I will not be updating anything during the month of November. I will be doing National Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, or just Nano, and need to concentrate on what I'm writing. I'll begin updating again as soon as it's December. **

Shinta crept through the undergrowth, keeping hidden, but also keeping an eye on his teammates. A bandit tried sneaking up on Rumi, who was having a taijutsu fight with another bandit, but Shinta caught the bandit in his shadow, freezing him in place long enough for him to throw a kunai, retract his shadow, and watch the kunai slice through the bandit's throat. His stomach rolled, but he kept a leash on it, knowing he didn't have the time to throw up over his first kill. He could do it after, but not now. Now, it would be dangerous.

Another one tried to sneak up on Katana, who didn't even need Shinta's help as she spun around, removing the bandit's head from his neck, then went back to clashing swords with her enemy.

Shinta looked back to Rumi, missing the bandit that snuck upon him. He didn't, however, miss the foot slamming into his side and sending him flying into the clearing.

Katana didn't miss a beat, knocking her opponent back and rushing to clash blades with the bandit that had been attacking Shinta, weaving a genjutsu around the man with a hand sign. She removed his head in the second that he was distracted, disappearing and reappearing in front of her first opponent, who was probably a samurai, based on the swordsmanship he displayed. Finally, she wove a genjutsu around him, and he staggered off-balance enough for her to get a cut in, and it was all over, the man screaming and falling to his knees before Katana took mercy on him and removed his head for him.

Shinta glanced at Rumi, only to find her with insects buzzing around her, and enemies running more from her, then from Katana, who'd done more killing then she had. Well, never underestimate the power of the fear of bugs.

One glance at his sensei, and he immediately wished he hadn't. Akiko had moved on to the genin, leaving behind a headless corpse. The corpse occasionally twitched with what Shinta recognized as a Raiton jutsu.

He hurriedly turned away, fingers back in the ram symbol to prepare his shadow to shoot out and seize any bandit trying to sneak up on the girls.

"You did well," Akiko said while they were sitting around a campfire they'd lit a little ways away from the carnage.

Shinta remained staring at the sky, feet facing the fire. He was trying not to remember the blood of the battle. Now was certainly not the time, and everyone here knew it.

Shinta decided it was probably good this particular mission had been handed off to them, he wasn't sure at all the Explosive trio would manage the deaths so well. Then again, Sakura did seem like she had murder on her thoughts constantly, based on the way Naruto was treated in the village, Sasuke much the same, just with less intelligence and more fire.

"Yeah, you'll manage," Akiko said softly. "Reacted better than I did at any rate. And, well, what my Sensei chose to do after our first kills was… debatable. I am still of the opinion that twelve-year-olds should not drink."

"Hangover?" Katana asked sympathetically.

"Then cramps," Akiko agreed, shuddering. "I'll stick with apple juice. Orange juice if it gets too bad."

Shinta noted that even Rumi shuddered at the cramps bit. Was it a girl thing? Probably. Troublesome.

Akiko sighed heavily. "Alright. It's not very late, but let's just stop here. We'll have dinner, then try to sleep. I'll take the watches. If you really can't sleep, you can join me. Try to sleep first though."

Shinta wasn't able to sleep that night, the headless corpse of the jounin Akiko had fought, combined with the people he and his teammates had killed in a whirl of blood and guts that refused to let him sleep. He tried, he really did, but just wasn't able to.

Shinta got out of his tent, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, staving off the cool night air.

Akiko was sitting in a tree a ways away from the camp, the shape of Rumi without her large jacket sitting beside her. Shinta sighed and walked up the tree to join them.

Akiko shifted over to let him sit on the other side of her. "Couldn't sleep either?"

Shinta shook his head, staring out at the silent forest.

"I wonder if Katana will join us," Rumi murmured.

"Probably not, I can hear her even breathing," Akiko replied lightly. "She's asleep."

"She moved liked she'd done it a thousand times," Shinta noted.

"Probably has," Akiko muttered.

"Huh?" Rumi asked, a moth landing on her outstretched hand.

"Sorry, above your paygrade," Akiko said regretfully.

Shinta yawned.

"Try and sleep again," Akiko suggested gently. "We'll get moving in the morning. We have to reach the Land of Rice by the end of the week, and I don't want to be there on time by only a slight margin."

"You'll manage?" Rumi asked.

Akiko smirked. "I'm a jounin, my cute little genin. I wasn't an ANBU, but I've been on my fair share of missions that required I miss a few days of sleep. I'll be fine."

The two genin nodded, sliding silently out of the tree and to the ground.

Akiko listened carefully, keeping her senses open to the environment, yes, but also keeping an eye on her students. They needed sleep, they were just genin after all. They both managed to fall asleep after a bit, and Akiko continued to keep watch. It was just a C-rank, but negligence could cost you everything. It had cost many people their teammates, and many others their lives. A jounin knew all too well that any mission could go horribly wrong, given the slightest chance. Even C-ranks were dangerous. Also, they were rather prone to going up a rank or two.

Akiko stifled a chuckle. If that happened to Team 7, they were probably handling it fine. Knowing the Explosive trio, they could handle anything thrown at them. They'd probably be fine. Besides, if any one of them came back in a body bag, Konoha itself would probably end up a wasteland. Especially if it was Sakura. Sasuke or Naruto would probably be just as bad, if not quite as destructive. Or maybe it'd be just as bad. Akiko suspected that a distraught Sakura could be just as bad as a distraught Naruto or Sasuke.

Akiko checked her students one more time. All of them were sleeping peacefully. That was good. She didn't want them plagued by nightmares. Honestly, she was kind of surprised none of them lost their last meal.

**(A/N) I really do like Akiko. So, to be clear, Akiko did create the second jutsu she used last chapter, and it's actually based on Kakashi's Chidori. Unlike his Chidori, it isn't an assassination technique, and is actually only C-ranked, due to its low chakra cost. No tunnel vision too, which is nice for someone without the Sharingan. It's designed to disrupt the nervous system of the opponent and would be useful with the gentle fist. Acts sorta similarly. See you in December!**


	9. Chapter 9

**(A/N) HELLO!**

They reached the factory at midday the next week. Akiko handed over the papers, and assembled them outside of the factory. "Alright, I have something that I do need to take care of. You have to remain here. Got that? No stupid plans to come after me."

Her genin nodded obediently.

Akiko smiled. "Good. Now, it should only be a week, but if I'm not back in exactly a week, release the bird from this storage scroll, and wait. A jounin will come to collect you and take you back to Konoha."

Katana frowned at her. "And after a week, we just leave you here?"

Akiko raised an eyebrow. "I am a jounin, thank you very much. I can handle myself. Besides, they will try and find me, and or send backup if I request. You don't have any reason to worry. Most likely the jounin sent to collect you will be Kakashi and his kids. You are not permitted to inform the Explosive Trio of my mission, simply inform them that I have buisness that is keeping me from leaving."

Shinta yawned. "Why?"

Akiko's other eyebrow went up. "Have you met them? They'll try and go after me. I don't need that to happen, thank you very much. Kakashi would kill me, and the Hokage would help."

Rumi inclined her head. "Perhaps you are correct."

"Of course I am!" Akiko chirped. "Understand?"

"We understand," Katana said flatly.

Akiko nodded. "Good. Remain here. The head factory worker has agreed to allow you to stay, perhaps you can even help out a bit. Think of it as practice for when you have to go undercover."

Her genin nodded, and Akiko reluctantly shouldered her pack. "I'll see you in a week. Remember the bird." She turned and ran, pushing chakra into her legs to run faster, she had scouting to do.

A few miles from the border Akiko quickly donned a simple worker's kimono, tying her headband on her thigh, above her kunai pouch, hidden by the kimono. She let her hair fall freely, something she didn't do often, but she had to be at least a little scruffy. Burrs caught in her kimono and perhaps a couple in her hair should she choose to 'trip', would add a sort of nice realism to her disguise.

The border guards saw no problem with her, travelers moved through Rice country all the time. They had no reason to be suspicious of a clumsy blond woman in a slightly scruffy kimono. In Akiko's defence, only one of those trips had been real, and even then, she'd played up the trip, and fallen on her face when she could've caught herself and continued walking. The guards thought it was rather funny, and even were kind enough to help her up. Not that she had any illusions about what they wanted, she was a kunoichi, and a fairly beautiful one at that. She was well aware of what most men thought, especially ones without honor like those idiots.

Rice country was full of fields. And guess what those fields had in them? RICE! Yeah, there was rice as far as the eye could see, and Akiko was getting tired of it, as counting the number of farmers she could spot was not working. It had worked for a bit, but it had gotten boring rather fast. She was trying to play I Spy with herself, but that was kind of a two person game. She was moving at civilian speed to avoid drawing attention to herself, and it was slowly killing her.

She reached a town a day later, settling in at an inn for the night, and heading to the local bar. She wouldn't be drinking, but there were always gossips in the bar, especially on Friday nights.

"So," a hushed tone, whispered to her. The man across from her was quite drunk, and apparently hadn't realized she was not, and had been drinking apple juice the entire time. "Hav 'eh heard?"

Akiko tilted her head. "Heard what? I'm afraid I don't get out much." She gave a ditzy little laugh, keeping up the at least slight facade she was at least a little drunk.

"People 'r goin missin!" He said, a slight exclamation punctuated by him placing down his sake cup a little harder than necessary.

"Oh dear," Akiko agreed. "That's horrible!"

"Right?" He slurred. "Just bit 'go, ol' Tommy said wifey was missin!"

"Oh no! What happened to her?"

"D'no," he muttered. "She come back tho, space out lot. Twitchy 'n jumpin, al'ays lookin over 'er shoulder. Skin all ashy, not quite healthy." He finished his sake saucer, and she obligingly poured more.

"You don't say. That's terrible! Is she alright?"

"'ick," he muttered. "Not quite recover, al'ays 'ick."

Akiko frowned. "Has it happened to anyone else?"

He nodded drunkenly. "Pe'ple 're 'fraid, ladies under 30, but o'er 18."

Akiko placed her hand over her mouth. "Oh no."

"S'mthin wrong?" He asked, squinting at her.

"Oh, I suppose not, I'm just in that age range, should I be worried?"

"'Haps," he murmured, tossing back one more saucer, and passing out on the table. Akiko quickly found his wallet, leaving enough money on the table to pay for his tab, and some to pay for her apple juice, and got someone to tell her where he lived so she could get him home. It was the least she could do, after getting him this drunk.

She headed to the inn herself after dropping him off and getting him situated in his bed, as he was alone at his house. A voice behind her made her pause. "Kukuku, some new blood?"

Akiko's blood froze in her veins. "Who are you?"

"Just a minion," the voice said into her ear, before knocking her unconscious.

**(A/N) *chuckles nervously* Right, well, did I do okay with the drunk dude? Was it understandable enough? Kami, I hope so. **


	10. Chapter 10

**(A/N) Remember the Poll about the updating roster on my profile. Honestly, I am leaning towards the three-week roster, if just so I can have more of my ideas out, but there's always the fact that two weeks is already quite a bit. But hey, this is why I asked you. I swear, Akiko is my mental clone or something, I would be doing the exact same thing in the circumstances. Sending a wave of sarcasm at Orochimaru...**

Akiko woke up suddenly, keeping herself still as she quickly regulated her heartbeat to still appear asleep.

"I know you're awake, Akiko-chan."

"Orochimaru," Akiko greeted, opening her eyes. No chance at fooling the Snake Sannin. "Should've figured it was you doing the kidnapping."

Orochimaru inclined his head. "Perhaps you should have."

Akiko rolled her eyes. "So, can I go back to my nap, or did you have plans?"

Orochimaru chuckled, moving to the side slightly to allow a second person, a surgical mask on their face. "You may attempt to nap if you wish. But I do have plans."

Akiko rolled her eyes. "Of course you do. Freaking missing-nin snake sannin missing more of his morals then is normal for a shinobi."

Orochimaru chuckled again, picking up a scalpel. "Do try and muffle the screams, we don't want to scare the children."

Akiko rolled her eyes. "Like your face hasn't already scared them enough."

"Kukuku, a bold one, aren't you," Orochimaru all but purred, the scalpel moving out of her sight, cold metal resting against the side of her neck.

Akiko smirked. "I've been called that before, let's see if I can call you something, hmm, how about… Sadistic, evil, worse than the Kyuubi, and an all around jerk of a snake."

His eyes narrowed, and he began to cut, slicing open the sides of her neck, but avoiding the main arteries that if cut, would kill her.

She ended up in a cell with four children. Two were just about to enter double digits, if her observation and age guessing skills were correct, and the other two were much smaller, perhaps four or five.

"Hello," Akiko said softly, suppressing a wince as the cuts on her neck twinged again. She had no freaking idea why on earth Orochimaru had made the cuts, wrapped bandages around them, then injected something into her that wasn't a sedative. Oh well, she'd probably find out later in some incredibly annoying or otherwise dangerous way.

"Hi," the taller of the two older children said, waving slightly. It was a boy, fairly well built, and clearly not from the area she'd been nabbed. His darker skin suggested Kumo or the villages nearby.

"What are your names?" Akiko asked, smiling slightly and suppressing another wince.

"Rezun," the boy said. "This is Koshoko, Otomiru, and Anchobi."

Raisin, Pepper, Oatmeal, and Anchovy, in that order. "Those are… interesting names." Akiko decided. They were all named after foods. How cute. Koshoko was the second older one, a girl, with purple hair and sapphire blue eyes. Anchobi was most likely related to the Uzumaki clan somehow, as bloody red hair like that was not usually found outside of the old clan. Otomiru was pretty cute with tan eyes about the color of, well, oatmeal. His much darker brown hair was pretty long, and very unkempt, meaning he'd probably been here for a while.

"Who're you?" Otomiru asked, in an adorable squeaky voice.

"My name's Akiko. I'm a jounin of Konoha."

The awed faces of the children were the cutest.

"Are you going to save everyone?" Anchobi asked, her amythest eyes scanning Akiko.

Akiko inclined her head. "I'm gonna do my bloody best."

"Are you hurt?" Koshoko asked, inching close enough to brush her fingers against the bandages around Akiko's neck.

Akiko shook her head. "Not very badly, I'll be all healed in a day or two. Takes more than six scratches to take me down."

"Sometimes it only takes one," Rezun commented.

"You're right. But you can't see blood on the bandages, now can you? That means I'm not gonna bleed out anytime soon. I'm sure the cuts have already clotted."

That seemed to reassure the children.

"Did he do any poky things?" Otomiru asked innocently.

"Stab me with needles?" Akiko asked, confused.

"Yep," Rezun said.

"Ah, yes. I was stabbed with a needle." Akiko sighed, suppressing yet another wince. She settled on the single bed in the room, leaning against the wall.

"They still hurt," Koshoko said, stating, rather than asking.

"Well, yes, cuts don't usually just stop hurting right away," Akiko said, shrugging. "So, how long have you been here?"

"Forever," Otomiru told her solemnly. He climbed into her lap, and Akiko patted his head absentmindedly.

"A long time," Anchobi said, snuggling into Akiko's right side. She patted the girl's head too.

"A few months at most," Rezun said, sitting down across from her and watching her calmly.

"Almost a year, I think," Koshoko said, settling down at Akiko's left side.

Akiko tilted her head. Why were the kids here? Not to sound callous or anything, but no one usually survived long in Orochimaru's grasp, so they must have something special about them. And for another matter, why was she in with them? Perhaps so he could use them against her. That was probably it.

She glanced down and noticed Otomiru had fallen asleep. A glance to her right found her arm being used as a pillow by Anchobi, and her other arm used as a pillow by Koshoko. She smiled softly, and leaned her head back against the wall, falling asleep quickly.

**(A/N) *Cooes* Aren't they adorable? Have a Merry Christmas! **


	11. Chapter 11

**(A/N) Hope you had a good Christmas! **

She woke up to a lack of feeling in all four limbs and glanced down to find Rezun curled up on her feet. She smiled, closing her eyes again. The door opened, and she reopened her eyes to glare at the person. The minion, probably low ranking, set a roll of bandages and a pan of water inside, next to a tray of food, then quickly backed out and closed the door. Akiko contemplated going back to sleep, but the bandages were beginning to itch, and that meant they needed to be changed. She twitched an arm experimentally, and Koshoko stirred slightly, blinking up at her with sleepy eyes.

"Morning," Akiko said softly.

Koshoko rubbed her eyes and nodded. "Morning."

Akiko gently woke the other children, and while they ate quickly, she unwrapped the bandages around her neck. They came away slightly bloodied, but nothing too bad.

"They don't look too bad," Anchobi decided, gently tapping the side of Akiko's neck.

Akiko smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure they don't. They didn't bleed too badly, so they're probably healing."

"There's no clotting," Rezun muttered, handing her the roll of bandages.

Akiko frowned slightly, touching the side of her neck and not coming away with blood. "But they aren't bleeding either. Odd." She shrugged, beginning to wrap them up again. "Oh well, I'll probably figure out what they're for in some demented test or something, knowing Orochimaru."

The snake sannin decided to toss her into the deep end, literally. It wasn't a pool, more of a tank, but it was totally the deep end.

Akiko spluttered for a bit, starting to tread water. "Oi! A little warning would have been nice!"

Orochimaru looked mildly amused. "Where's the fun in that?"

Akiko pouted at him and splashed water in his direction with all the maturity that came of her jounin status.

She then started coughing, water clogging the bandages at her neck. She sunk a bit, only treading water with her legs as she untied the bandages.

"What did you even do?" Akiko asked rhetorically, coughing up a bit of water even though she hadn't swallowed any yet. "Give me gills?"

Orochimaru merely smirked imperiously. Akiko raised a suspicious eyebrow at him, coughing up a bit more water.

"Where is this water coming from," Akiko muttered, coughing up some more water.

Orochimaru continued smirking, and Akiko glared at him.

She dove underwater, touching the sides of her neck. Nudging aside the skin, she found something smoother, probably the gills she'd joked about not two minutes ago.

Akiko took in an experimental breath through her mouth, almost coughing at the feeling, and was shocked to find that the water went out through the gills, and she got air. Well, not air, but oxygen.

She popped back up. "You did give me gills! How rude!"

"So they work," Orochimaru noted, writing something down. "We'll see for how long."

Akiko looked up to spot a glass lid of sorts swinging down and quickly dove to avoid it conking her on the head.

'Most people do not survive, the gills often do not allow for extended underwater breathing,' Orochimaru signed imperiously to her.

Akiko signed a couple of expletives at him. One thing her teacher had done that she still used to this day. Curses in Konoha SSL. Akiko was fairly sure that curses in SSL were fairly standard, and basically the same in all villages. Made it easy to cuss at your enemy when you were trying to be quiet.

As she saw no reason to waste energy by continuing to swim, Akiko settled down on the bottom of the tank. The water was relatively warm, and even if the floor wasn't the most comfortable, being straight glass and all, Akiko fell asleep.

She woke up sometime later to the sound of the lid moving up. Something was dropped into the tank, and Akiko giggled silently to herself when she realized it was floating. She swam up to tread water next to the thing and discovered it was a food tray. A floating food tray. With a towel on it, presumably to dry her hands. Akiko, thanking her penchant for swimming in the summer, and hobby of doing weird things in water, including having her hands out of the water while she tread water, dried her hands and arms, and quickly ate the food. She then hung off the edge of the floatie, happy to rest her legs. It was rather difficult to tread water and have your arms out of the water at the same time.

"Not short of breath, are you?" Orochimaru asked, raising an eyebrow.

Akiko flapped a hand at him. "You can try treading water with your hands out of the water."

Orochimaru's eyebrow remained raised. Akiko smiled cheekily at him.

"So, why do you have four kids hidden away in your dungeon?" Akiko asked, pulling herself up to sit on the floatie.

Orochimaru smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Akiko nodded. "Yes, yes I would. I mean, they all have food names, and I doubt they're just there for kicks and giggles."

Orochimaru snorted. "Perhaps I'll see your corpse in the morning."

"Good night to you too," Akiko muttered, diving off the side of the floatie and holding onto the bottom as the lid came back down. She deflated the floatie, filling it with some water so it would function nicely as a pillow. She set the towel down on the floor, as it was small and basically useless.

Her kimono had been sacrificed to give the kids a better blanket, so she was in the basic Jounin pants and long sleeves. As such, she was lucky the water was warm. Not that layers would have helped anyway. Her headband and kunai pouches had been removed, of course, it would've been really stupid for someone to not remove them. And her belt. Of course, that was gone too, given she had giant shuriken sealed into it.

She settled down again, going back to sleep.

**(A/N) SSL is the abbreviation for Shinobi Sign Language. All villages have their own variant. So what I'd do though, just… go to sleep. So, You picked a three-week updating roster, so new stories, go vote on poll. Yep. Bye!**


	12. Chapter 12

**(A/N) Alright, back to Konoha and the Chuunin exams.**

In hindsight, perhaps warning the kids would have been a good idea. Rezun almost attacked her when she opened their cell door, but paused when he recognized her.

"You got out?" He asked hesitantly.

Otomiru poked his head out, and lit up when he saw Akiko, soaking wet, but alive.

"Come on," Akiko said quietly, placing a finger on her lips. "Quietly, they don't know I'm out. We have to hurry."

The children quickly piled out of the room, Koshoko shyly handing Akiko's kimono back. Akiko smiled, tucking it into a storage seal she'd scrounged up from where her gear had been.

"This way," Akiko murmured quietly, leading the kids out of the hideout.

She blinked in the sudden sunshine outside, clearing the spots out of her eyes. The kids looked a bit starstruck, confused at the greenery surrounding them. Koshoko and Rezun seemed to recognize it to a degree, but neither Otomiru or Anchobi showed any recognition of the trees. This wasn't Rice country, it was Fire country, only a few miles outside of Konoha.

"Do any of you remember anything about where you came from?" Akiko asked, gently herding them in the direction of Konoha.

All four shook their heads, still rather fascinated with the ferns that gently brushed across their faces.

Akiko frowned minutely. She couldn't take them in, she was an active jounin, and had a genin team of her own. The older two could probably pick up a skill that would be useful for a civilian job, and there was a very small chance they could enter the academy, even at their age, and graduate with their age group. A very small chance, but a chance nevertheless. The younger two had a very good chance at being accepted into the academy, if they wished.

Either way, it was possible for them to end up in a very Naruto-like situation, living together until they were all genin and therefore self sufficient. Or whatever they chose.

Almost an hour later, they arrived at the gate to Konoha. Akiko signaled to Izumo and Kotetsu that it was her, not an imposter, and got the kids registered as victims of war. Not technically accurate, but as accurate as she could be.

Afterwards, she and the kids were admitted to the hospital for checkups. She was placed under observation due to the gills thing, but was otherwise unharmed, and the kids were marked as needing to be fed well, but other wise unharmed.

Her students came to visit as soon as they heard, of course, even Shinta looking mildly relieved.

"Hey guys," Akiko said, waving slightly sheepishly. "Sorry about the scare, ran into a bit of trouble."

Unimpressed looks were given, and Akiko shrugged.

"Don't die, would you?" Rumi asked, adjusting her glasses.

"I will attempt to avoid it," Akiko allowed, nodding.

"Good," Katana deadpanned. "I would prefer it if we went on more C-ranks before being stuffed straight into the chuunin exams."

Akiko giggled, flipping wet hair over her shoulder. "I suppose that can be arranged before the chuunin exams in Kiri in six months."

"In Kiri?" Rumi asked, looking distinctly displeased.

"Or maybe before the chuunin exams in a year in Suna," Akiko amended. "Less water there."

"That's two opposites," Shinta muttered, groaning.

Akiko hummed in agreement. "Yep. Kiri is wet and drizzly, and Suna is a literal desert."

"So," Katana asked innocently. "Who's the father?"

Akiko choked on air. "Wh-what? O-oh, n-no one!"

"Then how do you explain the kids?" Rumi asked, apparently picking up on what Katana had been referencing.

"W-well, I found them. During the mission." Akiko sort of stammered, still a bit flustered from Katana's seemingly innocent question. "Completely unrelated to me."

Shinta yawned, but Akiko spotted the amusement barely there on his lips. "If you're alright, we should probably let you rest."

Akiko smiled wryly. "Alright, if you insist, I will rest."

Shinta nodded once, then turned and walked out of the hospital room.

Akiko rolled her eyes fondly. "He probably just wants a nap," she informed the two girls that were on her team.

"Most likely," Rumi agreed, nodding once to her, and leaving.

"When doesn't he?" Katana asked blandly, following Rumi out.

Akiko chuckled in the empty room. She wasn't actually tired or anything, had gotten plenty of sleep the past two days she'd been in the tank, there hadn't been much to do except swim around and sleep.

She was released a few days later, a day after the kids, who had been placed in an orphanage until further notice. It mildly annoyed Akiko, but she couldn't really do anything about it. The chuunin exams were in a couple of days, and while her team was not participating, she did have to assist, as an able bodied jounin who wasn't out on missions. Kakashi couldn't assist, as he had a team in the exams, so she was a second choice.

She didn't mind, she hadn't been in ANBU, and was never considered for Hokage, which she was fine with. She was perfectly happy as a normal jounin, it was less complicated.

Kakashi's team had visited, of course, and were well, if rather concerned for her well being.

Kakashi had yet to formally visit, but she saw him hovering at the corners of her vision, and settled for that.

The other jounin seemed to pick up on how her headband was tied tightly around the base of her neck now, how in civies she wore a scarf, always hiding her neck, but never questioned it. What other jounin did to deal with the problems of their profession was their own business.

**(A/N) I am still deciding Akiko's place in the chuunin exams, whether she'll be helping, probably disguised as one of the chuunin proctors in the first bit, or going on another C-rank with her team. Either way, Ministry of Magic, Meet your Downfall's update spot is open, so go see the poll on what will take its place. **


	13. Chapter 13

**(A/N) Eh, Chuunin proctor will do, maybe short C-rank after. **

Akiko stared at the genin, smirking under her mask. Naruto looked like he was having a melt down, Sasuke looked mildly stressed, and Sakura just looked like she was bored, her test flipped over, doodling on the back.

Oh, that was cheating, and thus, a no no. She signaled to the chuunin across from her, gesturing to the one she'd noticed. He flashed a three at her.

Darn, no scaring that one yet, he hadn't been caught enough yet. Akiko glanced at a few other chuunin, gesturing to the one she'd seen. No more than the three. Now, four because of her noticing.

The mirrors on the ceiling were pushing it, but technically, it was only one cheating for the entire team. Except for the Hyuuga who clearly had his eyes running. So did the other Hyuuga in the room.

Kiba's dog was quietly barking to him, which was really pushing it, but if the others let it slide, so would she. Besides, it would be a tragedy to get that cute little Hyuuga trying to get Naruto's attention out before anything else happened.

She actually couldn't outright see Shino's cheating method, all of the bugs in the room she could see were the normal flies and mosquitos.

Speaking of which, a burst of lightning chakra zapped the one trying to suck her blood. After she made sure it wasn't an Aburame's. That would've been mean if it was. Also, she was smarter than to needlessly kill an Aburame's bug. Yes, sucking blood and leaving an itchy welt was totally unnecessary. Really, a light coating of chakra on her skin would keep the bugs away, but she didn't want to blind the poor Hyuuga with their eyes running. The other proctors were providing the same courtesy, just shooing away bugs with their clipboards, or using slight pulses of chakra to only fortify the skin where the bug had landed. Akiko was less kind to mosquitos, and the room could use less of them. Could always use less of them.

Ooo! That made five offenses! Akiko threw a kunai, after signaling the other proctors. The kunai landed deep in the kid's desk.

"You fail," Akiko said flatly. "Take your teammates and leave."

Haha! Now the kids would be either more cautious, or less cautious. The first kunai had been thrown, it would pave the way for more of them. Oh she loved playing chuunin!

Akiko tossed two more teams out by the time the last question rolled around. Oh it was so much fun to see their faces!

She waited patiently, seeing kid after kid give up and leave, the pressure, and baby KI the chuunin and Ibiki were giving off, grating on their nerves, and making them give up.

She signaled to the chuunin across from her again, counting down with her fingers and gesturing to Naruto.

When she reached one, Naruto leapt up, beginning to yell at Ibiki.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN INTIMIDATE US?" He shouted. "NOT EVEN THE BABY KI WILL DO IT!"

"He's right!" Sasuke declared, sitting back in his chair smugly. "You can't block us from chuunin exams in other villages!"

Sakura face planted on the desk, and Akiko felt her. The two were nightmares to deal with, and she wasn't even on their team. Or their sensei, who apparently really wanted to get rid of them.

Akiko snickered under her breath as she felt Anko outside of the window. Ibiki was on his 'you pass' spiel, and she was going to be early. Again.

After Anko had her introduction, she led the kids out of the door, and straight to the Forest of Death.

The actual chuunin split off, going back to whatever they had been doing. The remaining people, jounin henged as random chuunin, paired off and hid in the forest to watch the exam. They were there to pick up any unconscious bodies of the idiots that opened the scrolls too early. Didn't want all of the genin dead after all. They also grabbed and patched up genin teams on the actual verge of death, or with one member dead.

"You're Nintaimi, right?" Akiko asked the disguised jounin next to her quietly.

They nodded, smiling slightly. "Akiko, right?"

Akiko nodded. "Haven't seen you in a while, we'll have to hang out sometime."

Nintaimi nodded amicably. "When I'm not swamped with work. It's been nuts these last few days. The normal T&I nurse is pretty sick, and it's just gotta blow over, so I've been handling her work on top of my usual stuff."

Akiko winced sympathetically. "I just got back from a mission, although I guess you would know that, I saw your name on the attending nurse sheet thing."

Nintaimi nodded. "Your neck doing alright?

Akiko inclined her head, dispelling the henge from around her neck. "Been keeping them bandaged up, It's a bit itchy though."

"Any other noticed side effects?" Nintaimi continued, ever the curious medic.

Akiko shrugged, replacing the henge around her neck. "Been drinking more water, but I was a bit dehydrated anyway, so I might just be compensating."

Nintaimi glanced at the genin, who had collected scrolls, and were starting towards the gates. "Follow Team 7 loosely?"

Akiko grinned. "They're bound to leave at least one dead body behind, why not."

So, when Team 7 walked into the forest, Akiko and Nintaimi followed, keeping hidden in the trees, and hiding their chakra. Couldn't be too careful.

Akiko started snickering quietly when the very dumb Ame genin leaped out at Team 7, and were quickly defeated, or in one person's case, killed by way of Sasuke incinerating his head.

"Do they always do that?" Nintaimi asked in a hushed whisper. "Incinerate people?"

"The other two are just knocked out," Akiko pointed out, watching Team 7 leave, then hopping down to seal up unconscious genin number one, the one that had gone after Naruto.

"One moment, this one's still got lightning chakra in him, Akiko, get over here and draw it out."

Akiko crouched next to the genin, pushing at the lightning chakra, slowly drawing it out, as leaving it there would irreversibly damage the genin's nervous system.

Just as she had finished and Nintaimi had sealed away the genin, Sakura's shout rang out.

"RUN!"

They looked at each other. "Sakura wouldn't call to run unless they were really out classed." Akiko said.

"There isn't someone in this exam like that," Nintaimi continued, racing in the direction Team 7 had been going, Akiko close behind.

They arrived in time to see a barrier seal shattering as Team 7 fled.

"That's no genin!" Akiko said, pulling out a red flare.

"Nope!" Nintaimi replied, pulling out her own.

**(A/N) Isn't it fun to be a chuunin? 5-6 more chapters max. **


	14. Chapter 14

**(A/N) Hello! Enjoy the new story you get tomorrow!**

Akiko let the flare soar up into the sky, exploding in a brilliant red flash of light. Nintaimi's flare went up a moment later, ensuring any and all nearby ANBU would be running top speed to get there, as would the disguised jounin.

"He's going after Team 7," Akiko hissed. "Nintaimi, stay here and send the reinforcements after me, I'll make sure Team 7 gets away."

Nintaimi nodded, retreating to a more defensible position to wait. Akiko launched herself after the retreating back of the snake sannin.

Sasuke was tackled out of the tree, Orochimaru leaning over him creepily. Akiko glared, and pulled out a giant shuriken, launching herself at the snake sannin to get him off the Uchiha. "GET AWAY FROM KAKASHI'S STUDENTS!" She shouted, impaling a log. She flicked her wrist, and the log flew into the underbrush.

She checked Sasuke's neck quickly, picking him up by the back of his shirt. Finding nothing, she set him down on the floor again. "Run, I'll hold him off for now. You have two scrolls, right?"

A nod from Sakura, then the three fled, Akiko following at a distance, searching for the snake sannin.

He lunged for her next, only to be tackled out of the air by Kakashi, who immediately set a kunai against the sannin's throat. The sannin melted into mud, showing he'd been a clone.

"Kakashi, stay out of sight of your students, you know that, right?" Akiko reminded him.

Kakashi waved a hand at her. "Yeah, yeah, I remember."

An ANBU stopped in front of them. "The kids split up into shadow clones, we can't figure out which ones are the right ones."

Kakashi frowned. "They aren't the ones heading right for the tower, they will have taken a slightly roundabout way. And if we can't figure it out, Orochimaru won't either. We have some time, and that's good. Try and have at least one person watching all of the teams."

It was a testament to Kakashi's years in ANBU that no one questioned his orders, the ANBU squad leaping off in different directions.

"I'll tell the Hokage," Kakashi told Akiko. "Find my students."

Akiko nodded, turning and leaping in the opposite direction of Kakashi. She'd follow one of the paths, and hope it led to the right group.

She followed hers for a while, until they came into contact with another team, and about two minutes into the fighting, got dispersed.

She and the ANBU watching the group exchanged glances, then split, heading for other teams. The poor enemy team was left very confused, as their opponents burst into smoke, leaving nothing behind.

The next three teams brought up nothing as well, each bursting into smoke when they encountered a team, or tripped, or something.

"I see you have been unsuccessful finding the right team," Akiko taunted, coming across a very irritated looking Orochimaru.

"So have you," The sannin pointed out, straightening and clearing the irritation from his face and body.

"I'm sure there's an ANBU team that's on the right one. After all, there are ANBU all over this forest, on every team."

Orochimaru smiled creepily, disappearing in a shunshin. "I'd better get moving then, hmm?"

Akiko growled and chased after him with a shunshin of her own.

She was too late. Orochimaru saluted her lazily as he disappeared, ANBU chasing after him instantly. She raced to the tower, crashing in the doors just in time to catch Sasuke as he passed out. Iruka looked extremely worried as she hefted him up in her arms. "What happened?"

Akiko shook her head. "Mark them as passed, then help me get them to the medical ward. Three days and this section ends. We have to get them in fighting shape at least."

"In the case of prelims," Iruka agreed solemnly, gently cradling Sakura in his arms and running a basic medical jutsu.

Akiko gently shifted Sasuke so she could get Naruto as well, recognizing Iruka's grave face. "Internal damage?"

"Worse than that, spinal damage. She may not be able to walk again at all, let alone in the prelims," Iruka looked almost ready to cry.

Akiko would've patted his shoulder if she had an arm free to do it. "Let's get them into the infirmary, and call the doctors. They can check the damage, and we'll see how it affects her shinobi career."

Iruka nodded, hurrying off towards the area set up for the injured. They had three days, they would make the best of it.

Akiko hurried after him, making a note to ask Kakashi to seal the mark, and maybe ask Jiraiya when he came into town. The two would probably be able to get it off, or at least seal it, especially with Naruto's help.

The doctor said it was a spinal fracture, but could be healed fairly easily. But she should take it easy for a month or two so as not to stress the new bone.

Akiko sighed in relief, and went to find Iruka, who couldn't be there, as he'd been summoned elsewhere.

"Iruka, there you are," Akiko said, smiling. "The doctor finished. It's a spinal fracture, but she should be fine."

Iruka looked incredibly relieved. She knew he was attached to all of his students, but it seemed the explosive trio held a special place in his heart. "That's wonderful. Thank you for telling me the news.

Akiko nodded. "It was no problem."

**(A/N) And end. Yeah, this kinda solved the cliffie on TTDS, but no one reads this anyway, so who's gonna know?**


	15. Chapter 15

**(A/N) Preparation for the Invasion. And the Chuunin exams, of course. **

"So, did anyone catch him? Or get anything out of him?" Akiko asked again, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing but a threat about not stopping the exams. Which we kind of have to comply with," a fox masked ANBU sighed, rubbing a hand over their masked face.

Kakashi sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I wish we didn't, he almost killed my students! And for what, a chance at a body that has no chance of being his?"

"Sasuke wouldn't leave Naruto and Sakura, not voluntarily, anyway," Akiko agreed.

"None of us like him here, or wherever he went after he marked Sasuke," Kurenai agreed. "But there's nothing we can do but prepare."

"ANBU is already on alert, and the hospital is calling on their retired members to fill out their ranks in preparation. As far as anyone else knows, we're simply preparing for the mess that will be the Chuunin Exams stage three," a bear masked ANBU said, shrugging. "Right now, it's what we can do without looking suspicious. Right now, we can't afford to show weakness."

"Are your genin prepared?" The Hokage asked, already looking tired of this mess.

"Mine are on high alert, but know nothing concrete. I think Team 7's nerves have rubbed off on them, and they're training harder then ever," Akiko said, smiling slightly. "They're expanding what they know, and working on furthering in their specific fields."

"Mine are training to the best of their ability, I'm working on teaching a few more jutsu to them, including teaching Sasuke Chidori. Although I think Sakura's picking up the technique just from watching us."

"It will only be an advantage," the Hokage said, looking grim.

"Mine are working, I've set them on finding something different then their parents to bring to the team. Ino's looking into poisons, so she's been set up with Genma, Shikamaru's expressed interest in some genjutsu, so Kurenai's been helping him with that, and Choji's been getting a few earth and fire jutsu out of me."

"I have, as Asuma noted, been assisting Shikamaru with some genjutsu, and he has been improving at a prodigious rate. I think he's figured out that something's going on," Kurenai sighed. "The child is too curious for his own good. Shino has also expressed interest in genjutsu, so he has also been learning from me as well. I am doing my best to assist Hinata in adding her water nature to jyuuken, but it's going somewhat slowly. Kiba has been working with Asuma to incorporate trench knives into his fighting style, as an extra edge."

The Hokage nodded approvingly. It was good to see genin branching out so early.

"Yosh! My youthful genin have also been expanding their interests. My female genin, Tenten, has taken a fancy to sealing, and has been learning on her own best she can. I am currently still looking for a teacher to assist her in her youthful quest! Lee has requested his female teammate teach him the bo staff, and that is progressing well. Neji is working on using his fire chakra nature in his jyuuken, much like young Hinata!"

The Hyuuga head was frowning deeply like he had lost that particular fight. Akiko found that highly amusing. Almost as amusing as the image of the enemy when they encountered a Hyuuga spitting fire from his fingertips. Oo, were there any Hyuuga with lightning release?

She noticed Kakashi glancing at her slightly worriedly when she cackled under her breath, but ignored him. He wouldn't get the amazingness of that idea anyway.

The rest of the jounin sensei gave their reports, some more boring than others. Seriously, did they have the most entertaining group in the entire genin corps or what. And the year with the most bad luck it seemed. Last year like this had been Kakashi's! Dear kami that was an… interesting decade.

"Dismissed," the Hokage said, and Kakashi immediately made a beeline for the windows while the others mostly filed out of the room like normal people. Except the ANBU, who mostly vanished onto the ceiling. Y'know, like normal ANBU.

Akiko frowned as everyone deserted the room as shinobily as possible. "Where was Hayate? He should've been here."

A cat masked ANBU paused. "I didn't see him either, didn't see him last night either."

Wasn't she dating Hayate? If she hadn't seen him, what had happened?

Akiko took the window out, the cat ANBU following closely behind. "You get the right I got the left?"

The ANBU nodded, and they split off, leaping over the rooftops, searching for Hayate. Akiko didn't spend enough time with the special jounin to recognize his chakra signature, so she couldn't search for him that way.

She found the body, immediately kneeling next to him and checking his pulse. Gone. Akiko ran a diagnostic jutsu, searching for what had killed him.

A gasp from behind her told her the ANBU had found her. "What happened!?"

"It looks like a weapon of somesort, but it's too clean to be anything but wind or maybe lightning enhanced. Maybe even medical chakra. But I can't find any trace of medical chakra, so that's out, and nothing in his nervous system points to lightning."

"You think he was murdered by a sand ninja," the ANBU interpreted.

"I do. Baki, probably. The girl causes widespread damage, the boy would've poisoned Hayate, and the other one, the Tanuki boy, would've just crushed him."

"And there aren't any other sand jounin here. Do you think Hayate found something he shouldn't?"

Akiko patted him down quickly, finding a piece of paper in his kunai pouch. "Looks like it, check this out."

The letter noted down the names of Baki and Kabuto, underneath that, was written 'spies' and it was underlined twice. Under that was the note 'collaborating', then 'Orochimaru', and finally, the most condemning of them all, 'invasion'.

"Is Suna trying to invade?" the ANBU guessed, having read over Akiko's shoulder.

"We knew something was going on, but we couldn't have guessed that," Akiko said, frowning deeply. "If they're planning on invading, Gaara is right where they want him, smack dab in the middle of our village. We have to tell Hokage-sama."

The ANBU nodded. "I will get Hayate to the hospital to be burned and buried. Take the note to the Hokage."

Akiko nodded, allowing the ANBU to pick up Hayate's cold corpse. The ANBU left, and Akiko used a quick water jutsu to wash away the blood, and left as well.

**(A/N) So, Hayate was just a bit more sensible here, and wrote this stuff down! People are prepared! **


	16. Chapter 16

**(A/N) *is honestly just stalling here until TTDS decides to cooperate* I swear it'll get outta the prelims eventually! Ah screw it, this has been ahead of TTDS most of the time anyway, and not like anyone actually reads this, so finals time!**

Much of the next month was spent training her genin, getting Kakashi to train his, assisting in the preparations, and checking in on the children she'd rescued.

"You've been on edge this entire month," Sakura noted, leaning against the railing. While she was off the crutches, and had been for a few weeks, she had complained of pain before.

Akiko shrugged. It wasn't like she could just tell the genin why she was so on edge. It was freaking confidential, and Sakura wouldn't know about it until it happened. Unfortunately. Personally, Akiko thought that telling Team 7 would've been a very good idea, letting the kids loose on the security system to upgrade the seals there.

Kakashi had somewhat managed to get them to upgrade the system somewhat by telling them it was a training exercise, and while the kids had a very impressive imagination, Akiko doubted a literal invasion was even a slight possibility in their minds. It was in very few people's minds, you didn't really starts wars with an invasion during the chuunin exams. Which was why it was the perfect plan.

Sakura eyed her suspiciously, but wandered off to chat with her teammates.

This was why villages tried to avoid letting missing-nin escape them. If they told the village's secrets to other villages, it would be disastrous.

In this case, the missing nin had formed a village themselves, apparently had allied with sand, and decided to attack Konoha. Akiko was still working on why they would do it. Konoha and Suna had been allies for a very long time. Not as long as they had been allies with the now dead Uzushio, but pretty long in the shinobi world where minor issues could result in a war.

Akiko glanced around, spotting her team sitting between what bits of Kurenai and Asuma's teams that weren't in the exams, with Kurenai and Asuma on either end. She could see the longing looks from here, and snickered. The poor sensei, with seven genin between them, there was no way they'd get the secret, or not so secret kisses in between watching the fight.

"You prepared for today?" Kakashi asked absently, appearing next to her with a puff of smoke.

"Are you?" Akiko replied, watching Genma shift from his seat, preparing to take his job as proctor.

"Shouldn't you be with your kids?" Kakashi asked instead, the abrupt change in subject telling her that yes, he was.

"They'll be fine with the other rookies," Akiko replied. "Why aren't you?"

"I don't want to get zapped," Kakashi noted dryly, jerking a thumb back at his students. Akiko glanced behind her, and sure enough, they were playing with lightning seals, the area around them crackling with electricity.

"Reasonable," Akiko decided, turning her attention back to the arena. "Genma's starting. Better get your kids in gear.

When Kakashi turned to go back to his genin, Akiko caught Shikamaru staring at her assessingly. He must've heard their exchange, and was now putting his brains to work. Akiko debated telling him, but ultimately decided he could approach her with what he thought was going on.

It took all of Naruto's fight and into Shino and Sakura's for Shikamaru to work out what was going on.

"Are we going to be attacked?" Shikamaru asked her point blank, watching her lazily.

Akiko tilted her head. "In a manner of speaking," it was purposely vague, they did have watchers after all.

Shikamaru watched her for a moment longer, then walked away, yawning and seeming to fall asleep against the wall. Akiko spotted the quick hand sign in her direction. 'Invasion.'

Yep, he'd figured out what was going on. Good kid. She just had to keep him awake. She was fairly sure her team knew what was going on, Shinta was only slightly less intelligent than his half cousin, and just as wily as his other half cousin.

Shikamaru went down to fight Temari, and they began a short game of chase, followed by Shikamaru grabbing her in his shadow after a series of genjutsu threw her off enough for him to catch her, then promptly forfeited.

"He's got more then half his chakra left," Kakashi muttered to her, pulling down his headband after a quick check with his sharingan. "Why?"

"He figured it out," Akiko said, shrugging. "And clearly decided that fighting a second battle on an empty tank would be a bad idea."

"It is," Kakashi agreed.

"You would know," Akiko said, shaking her head mock scoldingly. "This is coming from the person _known_ for running into stupid situations without any chakra. Then being in the hospital for a week because you're in a freaking coma."

Kakashi pretended he didn't know what she was talking about.

Akiko just sighed and turned to find Gaara and Sasuke just standing there glaring at each other.

"What are those two even doing?" She asked, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Having a stare down and attempting to intimidate the other person into giving up," Kakashi said blandly.

Akiko just sighed heavily, rolling her eyes when she made eye contact with Kurenai.

An ANBU caught her attention, flashing the alright sign. Akiko frowned at the ANBU, but quickly turned her attention to the match. Did they induct new members? She hadn't seen that mask in a while. And why were they reporting to her?

Something was wrong, and unfortunately, it couldn't be accurately conveyed without risk of the ANBU seeing. Akiko resolved to keep an eye on the ANBU.

**(A/N) *long gasp* who might that be? Fair warning, TTDS's updates may be a bit longer so the two stories can end at the same time. **


	17. Chapter 17

**(A/N) Why on earth did everyone want to know what fic I was reading? *shakes head* whatever. In all fairness to TTDS, this will similarly be a capped chapter. This decision is not at all because I am still reading that fic and might have fallen down a MHA hole. Not at all. Also cause I forgot to say it in TTDS, these two fics'll be ending fairly soon, so… yeah. Probably in a chapter or two.**

Akiko somehow managed to keep her cool through the entire fight, until Sasuke perched on the wall after many, many failed fireball attempts. A final water jutsu had been spat, and now Sasuke was on the wall of the stadium.

"You didn't," Akiko said flatly, too done to even bother with politeness right now.

"He did," Sakura replied helpfully, fidgeting with the ends of her bandages.

"Stop fidgeting with them, they'll come undone," Akiko noted, glaring daggers at Kakashi.

"In my defense I thought it was the only way to get past that shield, and he's got a lightning affinity too."

Akiko sighed. "Kakashi, think about it. What happened when Sasuke threw the water at Gaara?"

"The sand slowed down," Sakura answered smugly, having clearly already figured out where this was going.

"I didn't ask you, but thank you Sakura. Now Kakashi, can you tell me what happens when earth is mixed with water?"

"It becomes mud," Kakashi said, starting to look like a chastised child.

"And how easy is mud to manipulate?"

"Difficult for even an experienced earth user."

"Now, does the child down there look like he is a skilled earth user?"

"No," Kakashi had officially sunk into 'someone's scolding me and I don't like it' mode. He was subconsciously puffing up slightly, which didn't phase Akiko in the slightest, and his hand was drifting towards his kunai pouch. Also he looked a bit like a kicked puppy, so there was that.

"But would Sasuke have enough chakra to get the sand to that point," Sakura pointed out reasonably. "He's fire and lightning natured, not anywhere close to water. It would take a lot more chakra for him to pull that much water out of nowhere. Honestly you're lucky Naruto didn't flood the entire place in his fight. I could see him debating it from here."

Akiko winced at the sudden shrill screech that rang out across the stadium. "His hit connected. It actually connected."

"To be fair, Gaara wasn't expecting Sasuke to break his barrier," Sakura pointed out.

"The shield was always invincible before, but it isn't impenetrable," Kakashi agreed. "I can think of a lot of people just in Konoha that could easily decimate him."

"They're also jounin with decades of experience on him," Akiko said, shaking her head. "Not fair, but what can you do in war. Or in battle sometimes."

"Gai would be one of those that could break the barrier, right?" Sakura asked, flexing her chakra almost absently, as if she barely noticed the fairly powerful genjutsu settling over them like a cloud.

"That's right, as would I, even without my chidori."

"Well, perhaps save your chidori, we may need it," Sakura muttered, kneeling to shake Shikamaru awake. "C'mon idiot, I know you're awake."

**(A/N) Yep, absolutely out of respect to TTDS and a desire to keep the two stories at least somewhat in time with each other. Not at all that I'm tired and have a half a dozen at least MHA ideas rattling around in my head annoying me to no end. Have a good night. **


	18. Chapter 18

**(A/N) It all ends here. TTDS ended yesterday, this ends today. Keep an eye out for the poll. It'll be up after the NFD one. **

Akiko snapped the neck of a sand nin that got too close, scanning the stadium. Gai and Kakashi were tag-teaming across the stadium, the ANBU were alternating between providing assistance and getting the civilians out of there so they could begin the second stage faster. Luckily most people in the stadium were holding their own just fine, being mostly high ranking jounin. Few chuunin and genin had been allowed to attend the final round, with the intention of letting the jounin let loose a little without having to worry about some newbies.

Akiko personally was snapping a lot of necks, and impaling many people on her giant shuriken. Her genin hadn't been knocked out by the genjutsu, but were currently fighting people out in the village proper and escorting civilians to the bunkers when they could.

A hawks screech from above alerted them to the beginning of the second phase. The civilians were all safely tucked away, not the ANBU could do their jobs. Extermination of the threat.

She quickly spotted the massive form of Akimichi Chouza plowing through enemies, Shikaku and Inoichi running alongside him, killing those that weren't killed by Chouza.

Akiko grinned, slicing open the neck of a particularly adventurous idiot sand person. "Now, you lot die." She grinned, flying through handsigns. It was time to use it. "Raiton: Dance of Lightning!" She slammed her hands onto the ground, watching in satisfaction as the people near her were caught in her trap of lightning. It took quite a bit of chakra, so Akiko popped a soldier pill before ensuring those she had caught with the lightning were truly dead. The deader they were, the less chance they were going to kill her friends or team.

"Raiton: Spider's web!" A web of pure lightning spread out from her body, and she heard screams from behind her. That's what they got for trying to ambush her. They weren't even remotely sneaky.

She slit their throats to ensure their deaths, looking around for anyone else to kill. It looked like the stadium had long since been cleared, so Akiko headed for the city, zapping or just impaling anyone who tried to kill her. It was almost laughably easy, but she was an elite jounin. She didn't know where sand's jounin were, but it was worrying her. Similar for Oto, which didn't seem to have any sort of identification.

Mostly the people she ran into were chuunin or genin level at best, which she had to admit worried her slightly. She was in the bingo book, she would expect higher-level opponents. If she wasn't getting them, was someone else getting them? Or did Sand and Oto simply not have any higher level shinobi.

The second option was far better, as she didn't particularly want anyone in danger from opponents she should be fighting. Not that she doubted Kakashi and Gai could take care of themselves. They were perfectly capable jounin, and honestly, Akiko didn't doubt they could both easily beat her in a fight.

The people attacking her stopped suddenly, and a hawk went out telling that the invasion was over. Casualties would be counted, damages tallied, and everything arranged. The next month would be hectic, but they'd come out stronger than ever.

Oh thank goodness, her students were alright. Minor injuries, mostly a scratch here or there, but otherwise they were fine. Rumi was limping slightly, but she deflected it as just a sprain. Akiko wasn't convinced, but what could she do? Rumi had promised to get medical attention later after all. And Katana promised to enforce it.

All that was left, was to mourn for the fallen, including their own Hokage.

**(A/N) And we're done! This universe has come to its close. This marks the end of the final of my old stories, so I am somewhat grateful for that. There is a poll up currently, so go check that out. The poll for this story will go up after the NFD poll is done, so check back in a bit for that. **


End file.
